1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
2. Background
A refrigerator is a home appliance providing a low-temperature storage that can be opened and closed by a door to store foods at a low temperature. For this, the refrigerator cools the inside of the storage space by using cool air generated by being heat-exchanged with a refrigerant circulated into a refrigeration cycle to store the foods in an optimum state.
As described above, the refrigerator may maintain the inside thereof at a preset temperature so that foods to be stored in the refrigerator are stored in the optimum state according to characteristics of the foods. Also, to maintain the inside of the refrigerator at the preset temperature, the inside of the refrigerator has to be sealed. In addition, the refrigerator has to be continuously cooled by supplying cool air through the refrigeration cycle.
For this, a power has to be supplied always into the refrigerator. Also, the temperature of the inside of the refrigerator has to be checked to operate a compressor, various fans, a damper, and the like, thereby maintaining the inside of the refrigerator at the preset temperature.
If power failure occurs during the use of the refrigerator, since operations of the compressor, the various fans, the damper, and the like, which are provided in the refrigerator, are stopped, it may be impossible to cool the inside of the refrigerator. Also, if the power failure state remains for a long time, or a door of the refrigerator is frequently opened, the inner temperature of the refrigerator may increase to deteriorate stored foods.
To prepare for the power failure, a cold storage material may be provided in the refrigerator. Thus, when the refrigeration cycle does not operate, the inside of the refrigerator may be cooled by using the cold storage material. Also, the fans may operate by a battery to supply cool air into the refrigerator.
However, although the cooling performance is temporarily maintained in the refrigerator, the cooling performance of the cold storage material may be continuously reduced. Thus, it may be impossible to continuously cool the inside of the refrigerator for a long time.
Also, if the power failure frequently occurs, a separate battery and a power supply device may be provided. Thus, when the power failure occurs, the battery may be connected to the refrigerator to supply a power into the refrigerator.
However, it may be difficult to immediately supply the power into the refrigerator by recognizing the power failure.
Also, a starting voltage required when the refrigerator initially operates may be very high. In addition, when the refrigerator operates for a long time in consideration of operation characteristics of the refrigerator that has to be maintained always in the operating state, power consumption may be large. Thus, to satisfy the above-described conditions, a battery having relatively large capacity may be needed, and thus, manufacturing costs may increase.